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Gordon
Gordon is an express engine from Doncaster. He was rebuilt at Crewe. History Gordon had a quiet history at Doncaster, his designs being drafted as far back as 1915. Construction started in 1920 and finished in 1922. Gordon was built an experimental prototype engine for Gresley's famed A1 class engine for the Great Northern Railway. During his time on the GNR, he ran numerous of tests along the route from Doncaster to London's King's Cross. By the time the London & North Eastern Railway was formed in 1923 Gordon had been retired from service, deemed redundant to the company's operations. Later in the year, Gordon was purchased by the North Western Railway and sent with a spare boiler. During his first year there he had been involved with numerous incidents, such as getting stuck on the Maron Incline (later to be famously dubbed after him), bursting his safety valve outside of Henry's Tunnel, and taking Vicarstown's pilot engine, Thomas, on a fast ride to Crovan's Gate. Sometime in the 1930s Gordon suffered from damage when his valve gear broke apart and disrupted his running board. He was repaired in the NWR works but it wasn't until 1939 when he was sent to Crewe to be overhauled. He emerged quite a different engine, fitted with some parts designed by Sir William Stanier. Gordon is famous for heading the North Western Railway's expresses, the eastbound "Sudrian" and the westward "Wild Nor' Wester". He has also had the honor of pulling special trains such as the Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Train in 1953, taking the Express to London in 1956, heading the cavalcade of Sudrian Engines to England in the same year, and taking a rail tour to Carlisle in 1986. In 2011 Gordon was dismissed from pulling the "Wild Nor' Western" and replaced with the then-newly acquired HST Pip and Emma. He now takes the "Sudrian" and the "Courier" daily. This means that Gordon does not have to work as hard as before and can take two trains per day instead of one. Persona Gordon is the fastest and most powerful engine of the North Western Fleet. He is extremely proud and inclined to boast. He is goodhearted, always willing to forgive, and uses his superior strength to help smaller engines out of trouble. Because of his rank in the social order of the North Western Railway, Gordon expects to get the most important jobs and either sulks when he does not, or gets jealous of those who do. Sometimes Gordon shows a kinder side and gives the younger engines advice, usually after he has had some mishap as a result of his foolhardiness. Some of his advice is not exactly honest, though, as Sir Handel had once discovered. Basis Gordon is an experimental A0-Class 4-6-2 tender engine built for testing on the Great Northern Railway and later the London & North Eastern Railway between 1920 and 1922. He was built as a prototypical template for Gresley's A1-Class steam engine, of which Gordon's brother, Flying Scotsman, is the sole survivor. Gordon has had numerous modifications in order to achieve the definitive Gresley Pacific engine, such an example was replacing a four-cylinder motion with a three-cylinder. In 1939 Gordon was rebuilt at Crewe using Stanier's parts. Most of his underframe was replaced with that of Stanier's design and his running board was replaced with a flush one designed by Sir Topham Hatt. His worn valve gear was replaced with a new Stanier two-cylinder valve gear, and his eight-wheel non-corridor tender was replaced with a six-wheel Fowler tender. His round buffers were replaced with unusual oblong buffers. Livery Gordon is painted in the North Western Railway's standard livery of blue with red-and-yellow lining and the number "4" painted on his tender sides in yellow with a red border. Before arriving on Sodor, he was painted in the Great Northern Railway's Apple Green with white and black lining. Category:Engines Category:Steam Engines Category:Island of Sodor Category:North Western Railway